Namdapha National Park is a large national park located in Arunachal Pradesh, a state in Northeast India. It covers an area of 1,985.23 km² (766.50 square miles) and was created in 1983. The park is home to more than 1,000 types of plants and about 1,400 kinds of animals, making it an important area for biodiversity in the Eastern Himalayas. It contains the northernmost lowland evergreen rainforests in the world, found at 27°N latitude. The park also has large areas of dipterocarp forests, which are part of the Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin rain forests ecoregion in the northwestern region.
Namdapha National Park is the fourth largest national park in India. In 2024, it was officially designated as an Eco-Sensitive Zone.
History
Namdapha was first made a wildlife sanctuary in 1972. It became a national park in 1983 and was also established as a tiger reserve under Project Tiger in the same year. The name comes from two Singpho words: "nam," which means water, and "dapha," which means origin. The park is located between the Dapha bum range of the Mishmi Hills and the Patkai range.
Geography and vegetation
Namdapha National Park is located in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, a state in northeastern India, near the border with Myanmar. The park covers an area of 1,985 km² (766 square miles), including a main protected area of 1,808 km² (698 square miles) and an area around it of 177 km² (68 square miles). It lies between the Dapha Bum range of the Mishmi Hills and the Patkai range, with elevations ranging from 200 meters to 4,571 meters (about 14,997 feet). The Noa Dihing River flows through the park from east to west, starting at Chaukan Pass on the border between India and Myanmar. The land cover changes with elevation, beginning with tropical forests with evergreen trees and transitioning to temperate forests with broadleaf and mixed trees. Secondary forests cover 345.47 km² (133.39 square miles). Snow falls between December and March at elevations above 2,700 meters (8,900 feet).
Flora
Sapria himalayana and Balanophora are plants that take nutrients from the roots of other plants. These plants are related to Rafflesia and are found in the area. The variety of plant life in Namdapha is as follows:
Numbers in parentheses show the percentage of the total count.
Fauna
The Namdapha flying squirrel (Biswamoyopterus biswasi) was first found and named in the park. It lives only in the park and is critically endangered. It was last seen in 1981 in one valley within the park.
The park has a wide range of elevations, from 300 to 4,500 meters (980 to 14,760 feet), and includes many types of vegetation, such as evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests, temperate broadleaved and coniferous forests, and alpine areas. This variety of environments supports a large number of mammal species. Four pantherine species live in the park: leopard (Panthera pardus), snow leopard (P. uncia), tiger (P. tigris), and clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa).
Other predators in the park include dhole, Malayan sun bear, Indian wolf, and Asiatic black bear. Smaller carnivores found here are red panda, red fox, yellow-throated marten, Eurasian otter, Oriental small-clawed otter, spotted linsang, binturong, Asian palm civet, small Indian civet, large Indian civet, masked palm civet, marbled cat, fishing cat, Asian golden cat, and two mongoose species. Large herbivores in the park include Indian elephant, wild boar, musk deer, Indian muntjac, hog deer, sambar, gaur, goral, mainland serow, takin, and bharal. Non-human primates present are stump-tailed macaque, slow loris, hoolock gibbon, capped langur, Assamese macaque, and rhesus macaque.
A study about the birds of Namdapha was published in 1990. The park is home to about 425 bird species, with more species likely to be found in higher areas. Six species of hornbills live in the area. Several rare wren-babbler species have also been recorded. Other bird groups include laughing thrushes, parrotbills, fulvettas, shrike babblers, and scimitar babblers. The snowythroated babbler is a rare bird found only in the Patkai and Mishmi Hills and nearby areas in Northern Myanmar, and it is also present in Namdapha. Other rare or endangered bird species in the park include rufous-necked hornbill, green cochoa, purple cochoa, beautiful nuthatch, Ward’s trogon, ruddy kingfisher, blue-eared kingfisher, white-tailed fish eagle, Eurasian hobby, pied falconet, white-winged wood duck, Himalayan wood-owl, rufous-throated hill-partridge, and whitecheeked hill partridge. Several leaf warblers and migratory birds, such as amur falcon and various thrushes, can also be seen here. The first mid-winter waterfowl census in Namdapha took place in 1994, when the critically endangered white-bellied heron was recorded for the first time.
The region has many Lepidoptera species, including butterflies and moths, which are equally common. Other insects are also present. During a National Camp organized by the Bombay Natural History Society in October 2014, many rare butterfly species were observed. These included koh-i-noor, naga treebrown, red caliph, cruiser, wizard, fluffy tit, and East Himalayan purple emperor.